MEXICO BEACH, Fla. — People remember Mexico Beach for its quaint 60’s-style beach cottages, white sandy beaches, and a certain peacefulness rarely found in Florida.
A video produced by the local tourism board shows what this family-friendly community, loved by so many, looked like before October of 2018.
Then came Hurricane Michael. Video shot after the storm shows the stark difference.
Gone are the dunes that lined the beaches. Gone are the wooden cottages lined up in rows along the quiet neighborhood streets. And gone are many of the shops, motels and restaurants that made Mexico Beach unique.
“Eighty percent of our city was destroyed,” said Mexico Beach Mayor Al Cathey. “We had roughly 1,200 residents. We have less than 400 now."
Cathey is owner of the town’s only hardware store, one of the few businesses to reopen and actually flourishing after the storm. Many of the other mom-and-pop shops in Mexico Beach weren’t as lucky.
“We were able to save something, and we got it back going, but many of the businesses here don’t have anything to go back to. They don’t have something to fix.”
'SPRING BROKE'
Normally this time of year, visitors to Mexico Beach would start to outnumber the full-time residents.
“Spring break kicks off our season,” said Courtney Huff, a server at one of Mexico Beach’s most famous restaurants. She remembers back to this time last year.
“We had a wait of an hour,” Huff remembers. “Maybe even two hours of people trying to get into the building.”
Now, Mango Marley’s is operating out of a food truck in front of their badly damaged building. The throngs of beachgoers are replaced by construction crews.
“It makes me smile seeing them get food and a hot meal,” says Huff.
But even all the workers won’t make up for the business lost. Courtney says for her, Spring Break this year will be more like “Spring BROKE.”
“It’s probably going to be very sad and dead and probably not a lot of people,” said Huff.
Even with only two restaurants in town, there aren’t many customers to go around.
“It’s scary kind of because you don’t what you’re going to bring home. You don’t know what you’re going to have in tips. We don’t know how many hours a week we’re going to have,” said Sarah Rhoades, who works at the local pizza shop, the only other restaurant to reopen in Mexico Beach.
“I have car payments and stuff like that. It's stressful. We went from having nine workers and we only have two people now,” said Rhoades. "That’s all we need for as slow as we are.”
'NOWHERE TO STAY'
A huge percentage of Mexico Beach businesses rely on tourists. Problem is, even if visitors wanted to return, the mayor says his city simply isn’t ready.
“There is nowhere to stay, nowhere to eat, nowhere to buy fuel,” said Mayor Cathey.
And with few customers, he worries local businesses are in no hurry to reopen. It seems the effort to rebuild is about the only thing keeping Mexico Beach alive.
“Our biggest need right now is an absolute commitment that FEMA and the state of Florida is going to provide the resources, money wise, to keep our people working,” said Cathey.
Those from here say while Mexico Beach may never look exactly the same, they have no doubt this community will once again be a special place. It will just take time.
“There are disasters everywhere,” said Cathey. “We are a small dot on the map, but our needs, our cares, our concerns are just as great as if this had happened in Miami or in New Orleans. It’s a smaller scale but for those people who care about Mexico Beach, we want people to know, don’t forget us.
"That’s what I’ve told the President, I’ve told the governor, I’ve told the FEMA director… ‘Thank you for coming, don’t forget us.’”
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